She looked scornful but she was secretly pleased.

She could no longer think clearly or speak with decision.

She was furious at me, yet I didn't care.

It was hard to get the story clear from her cousin's answers,
nevertheless she found out everything.

Subordinating conjunctions serve to join a subordinate clause
to the principal clause.

e.g. When the play was over he asked her if she would let him see
her home.

He felt marvellously happy as though everything he did were

a marvel.

The two girls were silent till he left the room.
He winked at me as he passed.
The old man said to the boy: "If you don't like me you may

go home whenever you choose."

Subordinating conjunctions may occasionally introduce a word
or a phrase within a simple sentence.

e.g. When a child, he often had to run errands for his elders.
His father was sharp with his children, while at home.
He promised to sell the car if necessary.

There was a dry, pungent smell in the air, as though of dry

vegetation, crisped by the sun.
He looked happy though somewhat tired.

Note. It should be pointed out that a number of conjunctions (a) have hom-
onyms among prepositions (b) and adverbs (c).

e.g. a) He had not heard himself called that name since his mother died.

b) Everything has gone wrong since that night.

c) He had his last meal in the restaurant car and hasn't had anything to eat since.

 

a) He found himself in his mother's arms before he saw her.

b) I talked to him before the conference.

c) I've never seen him so angry before.

 

a) They spoke little until they reached the less busy road.

b) He stayed up until dawn, reading and writing.

 

a) After he had taken all the things out, she started the car.

b) After lunch they all went to their rooms.

INTERJECTIONS

§ 1. Interjections are words expressing emotions, such as sur-
prise, anger, pleasure, regret, indignation, encouragement, tri-
umph, etc. They are used as exclamations.

§ 2. Some interjections are special words which are not associ-
ated with any other parts of speech, e.g. oh, ah, eh,
aha, alas, fie, humph, hum,
phew, pshaw, pooh, tush, bravo, hurrah, etc.

Some of these interjections serve to express quite definite feel-
ings. Thus alas is a cry of sorrow or anxiety; bravo is a cry of ap-
proval, meaning 'well done, excellent'; hurrah is a cry of express-
ing joy, welcome; fie, pooh and pshaw express contempt; aha
expresses triumph.

Other interjections, according to the tone of the voice, may
express emotions of different character, e.g. ah may show sorrow,
surprise, pity, pleasure, etc.; oh is an exclamation of surprise,
fear, pain, etc.; phew may express relief, astonishment or con-
tempt; eh — surprise or doubt; tush — contempt or impatience;
humph — doubt, disbelief or dissatisfaction.

§ 3. There are a number of words which belong to different
other parts of speech but which are also used as interjections, e.g.
bother, come; damn; hear, hear; now; there, there; well; why, etc.
We even find phrases used as interjections, e.g. dear me; dear,
dear; goodness gracious; confound it; hang it; for shame; well, I
never, etc.

Some of them, like interjections proper, serve to express quite
definite feelings. For example, bother; oh, bother are exclamations
of impatience; goodness gracious, goodness me are exclamations of
surprise; damn, damn it all, damn you, confound you and hang it

are used to express anger, annoyance; for shame serves as a re-
proof for not being ashamed of one's actions, behaviour; well, I
never expresses surprise and indignation at the same time; hear,
hear is used as a form of cheering, usually to express approval,
but it may also be used ironically; there, there is used to soothe a
person (e.g. There, there, you haven't really hurt yourself}.

Other interjections of this kind may express quite different
feelings, according to the tone of the voice or the context.

Thus dear, dear or dear me or oh, dear express sorrow, im-
patience or wonder; why may be an expression of surprise or pro-
test, as in: Why, it's quite easy!

Come or come, come indicate either encouragement or blame,
as in: Come, cornel Don't be so foolish! or Come, comel You don't
expect me to believe it\

Now and now, now can in different cases serve a different pur-
pose: Now listen to met means I beg you to listen to me; Oh, come
now! expresses surprise, reproof, disbelief. Now, now or now then
are meant as a friendly protest or warning.

Well, depending on the sentence in which it is used, may ex-
press a variety of emotions. In Well, who would have thought it? it serves as an expression of surprise. In Well, here we are at last!
it expresses relief. Well serves to express expectation in Well
then?, Well, what about it?; resignation in Well, it can't be
helped, concession in Well, it may be true, etc.

Note. Imitation sounds such as mew, cock-a-doodle-doo, bang and the like can-
not be treated as interjections since they do not serve to express any feeling.

§ 4. Interjections are independent elements which do not per-
form any of the syntactic functions in the sentence. They are usu-
ally sentence-words themselves and may be used parenthetically.

e.g. "Oh," he exclaimed, unable to suppress his emotion.

"H'm," said Mr Fox thoughtfully.

The great poet said: "The tragedy of our age is that aesthetic
values do not keep pace with social — and, alas, technical —
developments."

"Did you notice the stink in the hall?" "Well, not particu-
larly."

"Phew! Three times I was nearly sick."

"Marian is going to see her old nurse, Nannie Robeson, in the
afternoon." "Confound Nannie Robeson! Marian's always
going there."

Oh, pooh, look at these stockings!

Now, Marilyn, you don't know what you are doing.

Well... let's walk up there then.

You're about to make a confession to me. Well, don't do it. I
don't want to hear.

Some interjections may be connected with a word in the sen-
tence by means of a preposition.

e.g. Hurrah for Jojo and Ed!
Alas for poor Tommy!

Note. Interjections should be distinguished from such one-word sentences as
Helpl Silencel Nonsense] The latter are notional words, not mere exclamations ex-
pressing emotions.

NOTES ON THE SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE

OF THE SENTENCE

The Structure of the Simple Sentence

All words in a sentence perform definite syntactic functions.
As a rule, every English sentence contains words or groups of
words functioning as the subject and the predicate. Grammatical-
ly, these functions are independent and equally significant in the
sentence. For that reason they are called the principal parts
(members) of the sentence.

Words performing all other functions in the sentence depend
either on the subject (and together they form the subject-phrase
of the sentence) or on the predicate (together they form the predi-
cate-phrase of the sentence).

A sentence which has both the subject and the predicate is
known as a two-member sentence. Most English sentences are
two-member ones.

Sentences which consist of only the subject or only the predi-
cate are termed one-member sentences. There are not many one-
member sentences in English. We find among them:

1) sentences with a verb in the Imperative mood (e.g. Keep
clear of the road: Step aside, please.)

2) some exclamatory sentences (e.g. What a nice view! How
cold!)

3) questions expressing suggestion (e.g. Why not give him a
telephone call? What about having a cup of tea?)

4) sentences expressing confirmation or negation (e.g. Yes. No.)

5) some formulas of courtesy (e.g. Hello! Good-bye! See you to
night.)

Sentences built up of only the subject and the predicate are
called unextended sentences (e.g. The rain has stopped. It is cold.)

Sentences in which, besides the principal parts, there are
words performing other (secondary) functions are called extended
sentences (e.g. Edward was most anxious to hear all the news
about his family.).

For practical purposes of learning English, it is necessary and
sufficient to distinguish the following syntactic functions within
a simple sentence.

I. The Subject

The subject is a word or a group of words which names the
person, object or phenomenon the sentence informs us about. It
may be expressed by a noun, a pronoun, a substantivized adjec-
tive, a numeral, an infinitive and an ing-form.

e.g. The stranger came early in February.
Hospitality was a passion with him.
You're not a bad fellow.
This is my son Henry.
Someone was singing an Italian tune.
Much depends on the letter.
What has become of him?
It has been raining since the morning.
It's hard to forget one's past.

The young often complain that the elders do not understand

them.

Two of the letters were from my uncle.

The Dutch are famous for their tulips.

The extraordinary always excites curiosity.

To know all about English is one thing; to know English is

quite another.
Watching TV has become his favourite pastime.

II. The Predicate

The predicate is a word or a group of words that informs us of
what is happening to the person, object or phenomenon indicated
as the subject in the sentence.

The predicate differs from all the other parts of the sentence in
that it relates the information contained in the sentence to reality, i.e.

it is the means of expressing predication and modality for the whole
sentence. For that reason there is only one part of speech that can
function as predicate — it is the verb in one of its finite forms.

A finite verb may be used in this function alone or combined
with other parts of speech. Depending on the structure, predi-
cates are divided into the following kinds:

1) simple verbal predicates — they consist of only a notional
verb (in any tense, aspect, voice or mood form),

e.g. His words frightened me.
I've given her every chance.
The heavy luggage had been put in a dry place.
I shouldn't think the idea so unreasonable.

To this kind also belong predicates expressed by phraseological
units and set phrases which are treated as verb equivalents in this
book.

e.g. They are having breakfast now.
I took a walk as far as the river.
She amuses herself at our expense.
They have been taking care of your children long enough.

2) compound nominal predicates — they consist of a link-verb
and a predicative (= a nominal part) commonly expressed by a
noun or an adjective. Other parts of speech may also be some-
times found in the function of predicative (see below).

The link-verb expresses all the verbal characteristics of the
predicate whereas the nominal part is the main bearer of mean-
ing. The most commonly occurring link-verbs are to be, to be-
come, to get, to grow, to look, to seem, to turn.

e.g. He was a mining engineer by profession.
The leaves are turning yellow.
Dave looked surprised.

3) compound verbal predicates — they consist of a finite form
and a verbal or an adjective. The meaning of the first component
is very pale. It mainly serves as a finite verb and usually express-
es the speaker's attitude or indicates the position/motion of the
subject. The meaning of the verbal or the adjective is quite promi-
nent and determines the meaning of the whole unit.

As the first component of a compound verbal predicate we find:

a) modal verbs (can, may, must, be to, have to, shall, should,
will, would, ought to, need, dare),

e.g. You oughtn't to go back on your word.
You should have gone to the concert.
He had to tell the story to his room-mate.
She must have regretted doing it.

b) verbs of seeming (to seem, to appear),

e.g. He seemed to have heard the news.

For a moment she appeared to be hesitating.

c) verbs of unexpected occurrence (to happen, to turn out, to
chance, to prove),

e.g. They happened to meet at the bus-stop.

He turned out to have no feelings for his nephew.

d) some verbs of position and motion (to stand, to sit, to lie,
to be in/out/away, to come, to go),

e.g. He sat staring at the letter.
The boys have gone fishing.
Mother is out shopping.
They stood motionless with their backs to the wall.

III. The Predicative

A predicative (= the nominal part of a compound nominal
predicate) may be expressed by a noun, an adjective, a numeral, a
pronoun, an infinitive, an ing-form and sometimes an adverb.

e.g. He was not an artist, but he liked to create artistic things.
It was getting dark.
Henry, as usual, looked reserved.
The book is very amusing.
We were six in the room.
This suit-case is mine.

My first thought was to ask him for support.
My job was getting it all done in time.
Everybody is in.

IV. The Second (Subsequent) Action
Expressed by a Verbal

Verbals in this function indicate a second action accompanying the
action of the predicate verb. If transformed, the two actions would
form homogeneous predicates connected by the conjunction and.

A second action may be expressed by an infinitive, an ing form
and a participle.

e.g. He woke up to see his wife sitting by his bed. (= He woke up

and saw...)
He walked down the path humming a tune. (= He walked...

and hummed...)
Having locked the office he started for home. (= He locked...

and started...)
Dressed, he stood staring at the fire. (= He was dressed and

stood...)

V. The Subjective Predicative

Words in this function occur after a limited number of verbs in
the Passive Voice (see "Verbs", §§ 192, 221, 248; "Nouns", § 21;
"Adjectives", § 7). They modify the subject of the sentence, forming
with it a syntactic complex, often known as the complex subject.

A subjective predicative may be expressed by a noun, a noun
introduced by as, an adjective, an infinitive, an ing-iorm and a
participle.

e.g. He was appointed secretary of the committee.
He was regarded as a promising young writer.
The box was found empty.
He was heard to mention it.
The children were seen running down the lane.
The note was found pinned to the door.

VI. The Objective Predicative

Words in this function occur after a limited number of verbs
in the Active Voice (see "Verbs", §§ 193, 222, 249; "Nouns", § 21;
"Adjectives" § 7). They modify the object of the sentence, forming
with it a syntactic complex, often known as the complex object.

An objective predicative may be expressed by a noun, a noun intro-
duced by as, an adjective, an infinitive, an ing-form and a participle.

e.g. They appointed him secretary of the committee.
We regarded him as a promising young writer.
I found the box empty.
We thought the game dull.
They heard him mention it.
He saw the children running down the lane.
She had her hair cut very short.

VII. The Object

Objects are words which modify verbs and adjectives. They
complete their meaning indicating the person, object or phe-
nomenon which the action of the predicate verb affects.

Objects may be expressed by a noun, a pronoun, a substan-
tivized adjective, an infinitive and an ing form. There are three
kinds of objects:

1) direct — a prepositionless object immediately following the
predicate,

e.g. I miss the opera here.
I heard him on the radio.
We did not find anyone there.
I found it difficult to cope with the task.
Do you want to speak with me?
It pained him to think of it.
I'm extremely sorry to disturb you.
It was foolish to speak like that.
They found it difficult to walk in the deep snow.
I usually avoid asking him questions.
She was busy packing upstairs.
It was pleasant lying on the warm sand.
I thought the book worth reading.

2) indirect — a prepositionless object placed between the pred-
icate verb and the direct object and indicating the person who is
the receiver of the action.

e.g. They offered Ed a new job.
I lent him my car.

3) prepositional — an object introduced by a preposition.

e.g. He had been waiting for Nora a long time.
That doesn't depend on me, you know.
He was afraid of dogs.
Do you believe in the supernatural?
He is keen on collecting shells.
He thought of going away for the week-end.
He was used to having an early breakfast.